G. Mac Sebree Named First Distinguished Friend of R&LHS

Rails in the Rockies II - The 2006 Annual Meeting

Southern California Chapter Visits Tehachapi

First, from that of the national organization, which is responsible for fulfilling the nine goals presented in the Society’s Mission Statement;

Second, from that of the eight chapters of the Society, each of which is engaged in various activities to promote and preserve railroad history;

Third, from that of the individual member, who is engaged in research, interpretation, preservation and celebration of railroad history.

My efforts will be supported by a distinguished group of editorial advisors, each of whom is well known to members of the Society -James Caballero, a member of the Board of Directors and Chair of the Society’s Mission Committee; George Drury, a noted rail author and tour guide; John Gruber, President of the Center for Railroad Photography and Art; William F. Howes, Jr., author, Society Director and former President; and, William D. Middleton, a distinguished and prolific writer of railroad history for more than fifty years.

In addition to sections for National and Chapter news, we’re introducing the Member Forum, which will provide for communication among Society members and leaders. And, Trading Post will continue to provide a place for Society members to share requests for and offers of items and information related to railroad history.

I believe the Newsletter should also offer material focused on how railroad history is studied, researched, documented, preserved, communicated, displayed and celebrated. To this end, each issue will include at least one feature article, with the subject drawn from a wide range of special people, places and topics in railroad history. Many of these feature articles will showcase the work of individual Society members.

A key approach to documenting and preserving railroad history is through the use of images. To keep us abreast of new ideas around the creation of images, along with ways of interpreting and preserving existing images, John Gruber will prepare a regular column under the heading of Visual Interpretation. As President of the Center for Railroad Photography and Art, John and his colleagues have raised the practice of visual interpretation of railroad history to a new level. The Center has many activities under way, including its excellent journal, Railroad Heritage, exhibit programs, such as its current “Representations of Railroad Work, Past and Present”, and a robust web site at www.railphoto-art.org. We are fortunate to have John’s perspective and insights reflected in these pages.

In this issue, we are pleased to present a feature on the Southern Museum of Civil War & Locomotive History in Kennesaw, Georgia, a northern suburb of Atlanta. Dick Hillman, an Assistant Curator at the museum and historian of the Glover Machine Works, wrote the article about this progressive facility, which is now an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, and is the official repository of the Southern Railway Historical Association archives. Dick is retired from a 35-year career with General Motors, worked as a Marketing Manager for the Georgia Northeastern Railroad, and is a member of the Southeast Chapter of the R&LHS.

David C. Lester

RAILROAD HISTORY IN HOBBY STORES – WHY NOT?
By J. Parker Lamb

One of our motivations for revamping the format of Railroad History was to make it more attractive to potential new members. Chances are that many such people are interested in modeling and regularly shop at large urban stores, or just visit there often to “talk railroads with friends.” If you frequent a store or know someone who works there, here is a request. At its fall meeting in Harrisburg, the Board of Directors discussed the desire for a grass roots campaign to contact at least 50 large stores nationwide and offer the manager (or owner) a copy of Railroad History for his display rack and inspection by those who are unfamiliar with RRH. And, believe me, there will be many visitors who fall into this category. I recently sent two copies to stores in large cities and the response was quite positive in both cases. So I plan to send out more. Editors of a number of rail-oriented magazines have told Mark Reutter that “your new format looks great. We’re glad we don’t have to complete directly with RRH.” If you are interested in assisting the Society, just send me the name of the store and the manager (or other contact). I will have a copy of the latest RRH mailed to you for your use in this way. How does the Society benefit from this? Not only in reaching new members but also in special orders for each issue. This additional income will make our prominent publication that much more of a financial contributor and less of a user of society funds. My e-mail is jplamb@mail.utexas.edu and my mailing address is 2605 Pinewood Terrace, Austin TX 78757-2136.

RAILROAD HISTORY PUBLICATION SCHEDULE

Mark Reutter, Editor of Railroad History, provides the following notes on the publication and mailing schedule for upcoming issues of the journal:

No. 193 (fall-winter 2005) -- expected to be published on February 6, 2006
No. 194 (spring-summer 2006) -- expected to be published in June 2006
No. 195 (fall-winter 2006) -- expected to be published in December 2006

Please allow up to three weeks for delivery via USPS, whose “media-mail” for non-profit publications is highly eratic (Where are the railroads when we need them?!) MR

RAILS IN THE ROCKIES II -- THE 2006 R&LHS CONVENTION

Mark your calendars, the 2006 annual meeting has been set for June 8 - 11. Society Treasurer Mike Walker and his wife Sigi have put together a unique, special treat for us. We have never had an annual meeting quite like this.

On Thursday, June 8, we will depart from Albuquerque, New Mexico, by chartered motor coach for Pagosa Springs, Colorado. Departure time has tentatively been set for 1:00pm. Why Albuquerque? It’s easy to get there! Take advantage of daily service on the Southwest Chief, relatively low-cost air fares on Southwest and other carriers, or “Get your kicks on Route 66” (now known as Interstate 40 in these parts). The motor coach will depart from the airport vicinity, stop at the Amtrak station, and continue to the Pagosa Lodge, where rooms are being made available to us for $95 per night. Call (970) 731-4141 or (800) 532-9704 and mention that you are with the R&LHS to make reservations. There will be a hospitality hour after arrival, with the Society board meeting held that evening. You could also join us in Pagosa Springs, but you are on your own. Rumor has it that service on the D&RG San Juan to nearby Gato (Pagosa Junction) has been discontinued.

Friday will feature a trip on the Durango & Silverton line. The bus will leave Pagosa Springs at 6:45am. We will ride the train from Durango to Silverton and back. This is one of the most spectacular trips in the country. Dinner that evening will be at the Strater Hotel in Durango, and the bus will leave Durango for the return to Pagosa Springs at 7:30pm.

Saturday’s adventure is a trip over the entire Cumbres & Toltec line. The bus will leave the Pagosa Lodge at 7:00am and take us to Antonito, Colorado. We will ride the train all from way from Antonito, Colorado to Chama, New Mexico, stopping at Osier for lunch. The bus will pick us up in Chama and take us back to the lodge. The logistical problems involved in making this trip have prevented many enthusiasts from doing it. Mike and Sigi have made it easy. Back at the lodge that evening, we will have a mixer and the annual banquet.

The annual business meeting of the R&LHS will be held at 8:00am on Sunday, June 11, 2006, in the Ponderosa Room of the Pagosa Lodge, Pagosa Springs, Colorado. (This is your written notice for that event, as required in the bylaws). A buffet breakfast will be served at the meeting. Bus departure from the lodge is tentatively scheduled for 11:00am, with arrival back in Albuquerque at 4:45pm.

The registration fee for all events is $275. This includes continental breakfast on the early morning bus rides and all of the other meals mentioned above. Some details are subject to change, and the times noted above are tentative. Contact Mike or Sigi Walker at (719) 262-0777 or by e-mail at mikensigi@adelphia.net for more information.

PAY A VISIT TO THE SOCIETY’S WEB SITE - www.rlhs.org
The Society maintains a web site for the benefit of members, and others who wish to learn more about our organization. Our Webmaster, Adrian Ettlinger, does a great job of maintaining the site, which includes information about the history of the Society, membership and member services, our eight Chapters (including links to their web sites), along with reviews of past annual meetings and information about the upcoming one. A special section is devoted to the railroad-related materials in the National Archives, and includes a link to the National Archives web site. In addition, information about the Society’s publications, Railroad History and the Newsletter is available, including the complete contents of recent past issues of the Newsletter, in PDF format.

If you do not have internet access at home or work, it is usually available at public and university libraries, as well as some businesses. If this is not feasible for you, ask a friend for assistance. As you are reviewing the site, you might want to consider the members-only discussion group managed by Adrian, where your research question or casual query might be answered by one of the nation’s leading scholars in the field.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA CHAPTER VISITS TEHACHAPI

Fall 2005 was a busy quarter for the Southern California Chapter, and one of the highlights was a visit to the Tehachapi Loop on Saturday, October 15. The Chapter chartered a bus for the tour, which was led by member Mike McGinley, and approximately 45 members participated. The trip started with an 8:00am departure from Pasadena, with the first stop at Bakersfield to visit Santa Fe and Union Pacific (nee Southern Pacific) facilities. From Bakersfield, the group proceeded to Kern Junction, Tunnel Number 2, and Caliente. After lunch at the Kenne Cafe, the tour proceeded to the Tehachapi Loop, and returned to Pasadena early in the evening. Guide pamphlets, along with historic Southern Pacific and Santa Fe employee timetables were available for all participants. [Ed. Note - I expect that Tehachapi Loop is very well known to readers of this Newsletter. However, if you aren’t familiar with it, and would like some references on this interesting example of railroad engineering, please let me know.]

The Chapter also participated in the Los Angeles County Fair, which ran from September 9 through October 2, presenting an exhibit about their preservation and other activities. In addition to selling merchandise and familiarizing the public with their activities, the Chapter also has the opportunity to recruit new members. Approximately 30 Chapter members worked one or more shifts at the fair.

Monthly meetings of the Chapter have covered a variety of topics, including a presentation of Otto Perry and Richard Kindig photos of railroading in and around Colorado from the Chapter’s Groome collection. Other programs focused on rail service to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, the Chicago, North Shore and Milwaukee Railroad, and the steam and early diesel power of the Union Pacific. A new feature of meetings this year is that the first forty members attending each meeting receive an employee timetable from the many duplicates in the Chapter’s collection.

SOUTHEAST CHAPTER VISITS THE WEST TOCOI & BOSTWICK RAILWAY

Members of the Southeast Chapter visited the West Tocoi & Bostwick Railway, a miniature railroad located near Bostwick, Florida, which has both 7.5” and two-foot gauge railroads. The two-foot gauge line has about 4,000 feet of track operational, with one engine powered by a WWII jeep engine, and a new high-railer made from a lawn tractor to pull the maintenance car around. The pride of the two-foot is now the new business car that can accommodate up to six travelers.

The 7.5-inch gauge line also has about 4,000 feet of track, along with an equipment storage barn/workshop and a just-completed six-track yard next to the station. The line has six gas-powered engines and one steam engine (0-6-0) on site, along with riding cars and other rolling stock.

Various members of the WT&B hosted the Southeast Chapter, and all were able to ride the 7.5-inch railroad. The operation was very interesting, and included a long mainline run and numerous sidings which allowed for bidirectional running, with train meets. All who attended had a great time riding the line!

NEW YORK CHAPTER ENJOYS VIDEO TOUR OF D&RGW AND RIO GRANDE SOUTHERN

The New York Chapter, which meets monthly (except for July) at the Williamson Library in New York’s beautiful Grand Central Terminal, met on December 9 to view video of a trip along the Denver & Rio Grand Western and Rio Grand Southern narrow gauges as they were in 1949. The trip began on limestone trains on the Monarch Branch, then moved to the San Juan from Antonito to Durango. On the Rio Grande Southern, the trip visited Ridgway, Dallas Divide, Telluride, and Lizard head while on a Rocky Mountain Railroad Club excursion with 2-8-0 no.

74. On the northern lines of the D&RGW, the trip visited Ouray, Cimarron, Poncha Pass, Montrose and Gunnison. Other programs presented recently include New York Central electrification, New York City transit, New Haven trolleys, Maine narrow gauge railroads, Norfolk & Western steam, and Southern Pacific.

Several Chapter members have made recent trips of interest - Chapter Chairman Charlie Smith was aboard the NS excursion in Pennsylvania on Saturday, September 30, sponsored by the Lexington Group. In August, Henry Deutch and his wife visited the Tampa-St. Petersburg area in Florida, and enjoyed visiting Tampa Union Station, as well as the restored Tampa Electric Company streetcar line to Ybor City. And, Frank Corley, who is associated with American Rail Excursions, Inc., reported on a round trip from Chicago to Williams, Arizona en route to the annual convention of the American Association of Private Rail Car Owners (AAPRCO).

GOLDEN SPIKE CHAPTER ADDRESSED BY NATIONAL PARK SERVICE ARCHEOLOGIST

The Golden Spike Chapter recently held a joint meeting with the Hostlers Model Railroad Club at the Ogden Union Station in November. The guest speaker was Brett Guisto, a National Park Service Archeologist who is working on a five-year plan for the improvement and expansion of the Golden Spike Historic site at Promontory, Utah. Mr. Guisto’s specialty is industrial historical archeology. Educated in Canada and South Africa, Mr. Guisto has worked at various locations within the United States.

The five-year plan will be done under the Vanishing Treasures Program. Since the site was active from 1869 to 1942, the interpretive aspect of the park will cover that time span. Such things as expanding and removing the Engine House, reconstruction of several trestles to reflect the different construction methods over time, laying of additional track, acquisition of additional rolling stock, and acquisition of surrounding land to restore the physical landscape view as it was in 1869. It sounds like some exciting things are in store for the Golden Spike site in the coming years.

The Southern Museum of Civil War & Locomotive History

Richard L. Hillman

The Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History, located in Kennesaw, Georgia (just outside of Atlanta), has two main and permanent themes. The first relates how the railroads played a key role in the outcome of America’s War Between the States, which was the first war in which railroads played a significant role. A major exhibit in this story is the restored Civil War locomotive, The General, and the story of the Great Locomotive Chase. The second theme is post Civil War reconstruction, which is presented through the story of the Glover Machine Works, and their construction of steam-powered machinery, including railroad locomotives.

The museum opened in 1972 in a remodeled, 3,600 square-foot cotton gin with plans of being the new home of The General. However, ownership of this Rogers locomotive, built in 1855, came into question in 1959, resulting in a series of courtroom battles that escalated into an appeal presented to the United States Supreme Court in 1970. By this time, the battle was between the city of Chattanooga, Tennessee, where the locomotive had resided on display in between various and frequent exhibits around the country, and the Louisville & Nashville Railroad.

One of the more colorful skirmishes involving the locomotive occurred in 1961. The L&N decided that firing up the old General for the upcoming Civil War Centennial would be a great public relations move. Because of their questionable ownership of the locomotive and the tensions that existed at the time between the city and the railroad, the L&N chose a “dark-of-night” removal of the locomotive from its display site. When the last passenger train of the night had exited the station where The General was displayed, a crew that was all ready to go swung into action and put down some panel track. Railroad police were posted around the action to keep the curious at bay, and The General was carefully pulled off of its display track and onto an L&N siding. By 1:00am, The General was crossing deserted Chattanooga streets and on its way to Craven Yard for loading onto flat cars, and was soon on its way to Louisville, Kentucky for a tune-up. The next morning, a reported for a Chattanooga newspaper noticed that The General was missing, and soon the tale of the second theft of the locomotive became a widely popular story.

Over the next six years, the locomotive, now oil-fired, made a number of appearances and ran thousands of miles under steam. The L&N parked The General in the shops at Louisville in 1967 while legal battles worked their way through the courts, and on to the U.S. Supreme Court. When that body refused to hear an appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals verdict, which granted possession of the locomotive to the L&N, the struggle was over, and in 1972, the railroad deeded the locomotive to the State of Georgia. The General was placed in its new home in the remodeled cotton gin in April, 1972, and there it sat until things began to change in a big way in 2002.

The events leading up to these changes began in 1993. That’s when the owners of the 100 year-old Glover Machine Works of Marietta, Georgia, in which some 200 steam locomotives were built, decided to close the business and sell of their eleven-acre plant site. The facility contained all of the equipment, records and material necessary to build locomotives (except for the boilers, which they never built), and three locomotives which were still parked inside the main erecting hall. The importance of this complete collection of such a rare example of early southern industrialization quickly caught the attention of the Smithsonian Institution, and a search for a suitable home for the material was under way.

Eventually, the city of Kennesaw saw this as an opportunity to enhance what, by that time, was generally agreed to be an inadequate display venue for a piece of railroad history as significant as The General. The idea of joining the story of The General and the Civil War, along with the post-Civil War story of the Glover Machine Works, was developed, and plans were made to proceed with the project. In the mid-1990’s, the Glover material went into storage, and planning for the new facility began in earnest in 1996. In 2002, with a $6 million fund-raising campaign well under way, construction was begun on the new 40,000 square-foot facility. With the early involvement of the Smithsonian Institution, the building was designed and constructed to standards which allowed it to immediately became an affiliate museum of the Smithsonian. On March 30, 2003, the museum held its Grand Opening.

The Southern Museum is a very good source of information about railroading’s strategic importance during the Civil War. In addition to providing the details of the Great Locomotive Chase, the museum exhibits explain the differences in the operation of Union and Confederate railroads, and how those differences resulted in several military advantages for Union troops.

The Glover Machine Works story has several dimensions, beginning with the tough economic times experienced in the South at the close of the Civil War, and how the Glover family responded to the challenges. Prior to the Civil War, the southern economy was primarily dependent on agricultural products such as cotton and other field crops. After the war, with its transportation infrastructure destroyed and much collateral damage to the entire region, there was virtually no market for southern crops. There was strong demand for lumber, however, but there was little equipment available for use in harvesting timber. The advent of the Glover Machine Works, however, provided machinery and locomotives to support this growing part of the southern economy.

Using the amazingly complete Glover collection, visitors are taken through the entire process of building steam-powered equipment. Included in the exhibits are the stories of workers building these machines, complete with specially made figures which help show how the equipment was used. In addition, an erecting hall is replicated with two Glover-built locomotives under construction. The archives hold Glover company records dating back to the late 19th century.

Glover catalog from the early 20th Century (Reproduction, David Lester collection) await funding that will permit their being

These records have been sorted and cataloged, and provide a comprehensive record of the company’s work. Included in the collection are catalogs of early 20th century industrial machinery and supplies. There is also a fairly complete set of locomotive builder’s photographs which have been printed from the original glass plate negatives. One as yet unprocessed element of the Glover collection is the original blueprints. These blueprints were mostly folded and fi led in letter-sized filing cabinets. They have been transferred to archival storage boxes, and unfolded, inventoried and placed in proper storage

equipment. Because of the small size of some of the Glover locomotives, a great deal of interest in the availability of some of the Glover drawings has been expressed by live steam builders.

After the remodeled museum opened in 2003, the Southern Railway Historical Association (SRHA), approached museum management expressing interest in relocating the Association’s extensive archives to the Kennesaw facility. After several meetings, the decision was made and agreements signed, which enabled the transfer of the archives. Several truckloads of Southern Railway records began to be moved to Kennesaw over the following months, putting much of this precious material into a safe environment for the first time. Most of these records have never been sorted or cataloged, and while an enormous amount of work remains in the years ahead, the material is now safe and secure. One of the first steps was to deal with several boxes of large format, black-and-white company photographs that were curling badly. All of these photographs are now sorted, placed in archival photo sleeves and categorized to facilitate retrieval. To publicize the existence of this photo collection, as well as to raise money for the continued processing of the SRHA collection, two books have been published by Arcadia Publishing using material from the collection. All proceeds from the sale of the books go directly to the acquisition of more archival storage supplies.

Other interesting parts of the SRHA collection include the presidential files and the valuation records. The presidential files contain correspondence and reports from the files of Southern Railway’s presidents. The valuation records contain mile-by-mile descriptions of the railroad’s right-of-way in astonishing detail. The collection also includes many engineering drawings of rolling stock and structures.

The Southern Museum includes 3,000 square-feet of clear-span space dedicated to temporary or traveling exhibits. These exhibits include material from the Smithsonian Institution’s SITES (Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibit Shows) program, along with exhibits created in-house. One recently closed show that was very popular was an in-house show entitled “Railroading in the Southeast”. This exhibit included a functional locomotive simulator, along with a two-position telegraph set up that taught two participants how to send and receive telegraph messages. A photographic exhibit on railroad workers from the Center for Railroad Photography and Art is scheduled for early 2006.

As new as the Southern Museum of Civil War & Locomotive History is, planning for the future has already begun. Fund raising is well under way for a new 8,000 square-foot addition dedicated to educating visitors about the railroad industry and its history.

Machinery in the Glover display at the Southern Museum (David Lester photo)

Annual attendance at the museum has consistently been in the 60,000 range since opening, with school groups comprising a substantial portion of that figure. The museum has received numerous awards from school groups and travel associations. With exhibits and records from the Civil War and post-Civil War eras, a great deal of material regarding railroad history on into the 20th century, exhibit space in which shows are constantly changing, and plans for expansion, the Southern Museum is focused on becoming a premier railroad history museum and research center. Further Reading Hillman, Richard L. Glover Steam Locomotives - The South’s Last Steam Builder. Forest Park, Illinois: Heimburger House Publishing Company, 1996. Cohen, Stan and James G. Bogle. The General & The Texas - A Pictorial History of the Andrews Raid, April 12, 1862. Missoula, Montana: Pictorial Histories Publishing Company, Inc., 1999.

Glover standard-gauge 2-6-2 built for the Cliffside Railroad as their number 18, and delivered on July 27, 1923. (Glover Collection at the Southern Museum)